


The Road Home

by Lunessta



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Book 1: The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson), Book 2: The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson), Book 3: The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson), Book 4: The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson), F/M, Post-The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson), Slow Burn, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:08:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28095918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunessta/pseuds/Lunessta
Summary: "You don't know what it means to win""I know what it means to lose, and I've lost an awful lot"SCARLET has deviated from her future and her entire world, with nowhere left to go and nothing left to lose, she tags along on events she already knows will happen. But when things take a left turn instead of a right, she finds that the future may not be as set in stone as she thought.--Spans from The Lightning Thief to The Blood of Olympus--
Relationships: Percy Jackson/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 12





	1. Suffocation

**WHEN SCARLET** was about five, she had been —accidentally — trapped inside of a footlocker. The box was dark and musty, and quite uncomfortable; but the reason that she remembered this exact memory was not because of the lack of room, or lighting. The real problem was the lack of air. The feeling of not being able to breathe — of not being able to do something so... _essential._ So _natural_.

That was her life now. A constant and perpetual feeling that she was not getting enough air. As if she were always looking at things through a foggy window. The rain didn't help either; the weather had been constantly rainy for the past month, making everything dank and humid. It gave the perfect illusion of being underwater, and Scarlet was drowning.

She looked down to the book in her lap, _The Mark of Athena_ glared up at her, the images of two boys upon their steeds, charging towards each other, both wielding weapons, a dangerous shimmer in their eyes, while a pair of owl eyes looked out with the ever-present gleam of wisdom from Athena. Scarlet had read the book about one hundred times, but she could never shake the feeling that the eyes were looking at her, expecting something.She ran a gentle finger over the slightly raised words on the cover of the book.

"What do you need from me?" She whispered to the book.

Scarlet's head jerked up as the bus started moving and the sound of a teacher's voice started telling the students to remain in their seats. Scarlet's cheeks were dusted a rosy pink, and she scolded herself for talking to a book, thankful that no one had heard her.

Scarlet lifted her head and peered out the window beside her. She watched as gray fields, gray houses, and the gray sky pass by in a blur of nothing but gray.

The rain came down in sheets that blurred her vision; she hadn't even noticed it was raining before. A shard of lightning shot through the sky and a few moments later the deep low growl of thunder followed. The wind seemed to be picking up, the trees started bending precariously to the left. Scarlet looked to her classmates, none of them seemed to notice the storm, or they did and didn't care. An odd knot started to form in her stomach, and a horrible feeling prickled in her chest. Scarlet rung her hands and tried to push the feeling of dread away, but as an unwanted cat, it kept coming back, begging for her attention.

Scarlet tried to focus on where they were going, her class had been talking about it for weeks now. They were going to... going to, where? She couldn't remember. Why couldn't she remember? Scarlet squeezed her eyes shut, sure that there was _some_ memory on their destination, she couldn't have just forgotten. But nothing came into her mind like the memory had been completely erased.

Panicking, she looked out the window and wished that she hadn't. The storm outside had gotten worse, she saw the trees start to be uprooted by the wind, the sky — instead of overcast and gray— was a nasty green color. Scarlet's heart was racing in her chest, and the knot in her stomach only grew tighter.

A scream almost escaped her throat when the bus swerved to the right, her whole body trembled and the book in her lap almost fell to the ground, she caught it with shaky hands, hugging it tightly to her chest. The bus swerved again and this time a small whimper flew out of her mouth, but this time she wasn't the only one. All around, her classmates seemed to have noticed the raging storm, a few of them had started asking the teacher questions, wondering what was happening, while the rest of the students remained quiet, wary looks upon their faces.

The bus swerved once more, and more than one student screamed, the teacher trying in vain to calm her students down, although Scarlet could tell that the shaking in her voice didn't reassure them in any way.

That was when the bus swerved for the final time and started to flip. Time seemed to slow down for Scarlet and a feeling of weightlessness overcame her entire body as the bus flipped once, twice, three times, and then stopped. Scarlet felt her right arm bent at an awkward angle, and she wondered in astonishment when that happened, surely she would have felt it. But she felt no pain at all.

Scarlet's sluggish mind couldn't process much, but it managed to order her neck to turn towards the window. The glass had completely shattered and the wind and rain assaulted her face, she barely felt it. The bus had landed right side up, allowing her to see a large black _thing_ heading straight for the vehicle. As it got closer her mind was able to place what it was. A large tree that had been uprooted by the wind was about to crash right into the bus. Scarlet doubted she would be able to survive being crushed. She knew this was the end.

But Scarlet, in the last few moments of her short, dull life, did not pray. She did not plead, she didn't scream or shout. No, Scarlet instead looked down to her lap, which was now wet and covered in broken glass, where the book lay, untarnished by the crash or the rain and wind.

So Scarlet, in her last few seconds of life, stared into those expecting owl eyes, and asked a question,

_What do you need from me?_

She did not receive an answer, but in the final milliseconds before the tree crashed into the yellow school bus, Scarlet could have sworn that she saw those owl eyes, blink.


	2. Doubt

**SCARLET JERKED** herself awake, but a pain in her neck stopped her short and made her wince. Bringing her hand up, she gently massaged the stiff muscles, blinking her eyes rapidly. Noticing that the sun was glaring down at her, she quickly shaded her face. Now she saw where she was; the gray false leather seats, the mummer of kids talking, and the almost unbearable heat: she was in a school bus. The brunette blinked in surprise.

Why was she surprised? She didn't know, she couldn't quite remember.

A dream, she reasoned, she must have fallen asleep and the feeling of unease was just an after effect of a nightmare. She was where she was supposed to be.

The girl looked down to her lap, and furrowed her eyebrows, laying there was a book she'd never seen before. The book was the same length and width as _The Mark of Athena,_ but the cover was completely blank, and the color was a dark turquoise. She turned the book over in her hands, staring at it as if it were a foreign object; there were no labels or other identifying marks to be found, and inside the book was nothing but blank wispy pages. Scarlet figured that it was a journal; it might have been hers, she supposed, but she didn't remember ever getting one for herself. Scarlet reasoned that she must be holding it for someone else, it couldn't possibly be hers.

Scarlet almost jumped out of her skin when a large wet _splat_ sounded next to her. She turned and found a runny, sticky wad of _something_ had been thrown onto her seat, she looked closer a found that it was composed mainly of peanut butter, but another red, liquid-y substance was a part of it as well. Curious, she leaned forward and sniffed; the girl recoiled almost immediately and crinkled her nose in disgust. Scarlet was a little more than confused. Peanut butter and... _ketchup_?

"I'm going to kill her," Scarlet heard someone say in a rather clipped tone.

"It's okay. I like peanut butter," replied a pleading voice that was obviously trying to be reassuring, and failing miserably.

Scarlet froze, she knew those words from somewhere, not the voices who spoke them, but the words themselves, although, she couldn't remember from where. She looked up, and across the aisle from her sat two boys, one looked around her age, eleven or twelve maybe, with raven-colored hair, he was glaring intensely at the seat in front of him; it was he, who made the first statement, Scarlet guessed. The other boy looked to be a few years older than she, with light brown curly hair and bright brown eyes that looked as pleading as his voice had sounded. Scarlet looked at them closely, wondering if she had seen them somewhere before, but the longer she stared at them, she grew more certain that she had never seen them before in her life. In fact, as she looked around, she noticed that she had never seen anyone on this bus before either. Scarlet felt her breathing quicken at the realization.

She watched as the curly-haired boy ducked just in time as another glob of peanut butter and ketchup went flying through the air.

"That's it," the raven-haired boy growled as he started to stand.

"You're already on probation," the other boy spoke, warning lacing his words. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."

Again, Scarlet was hit by that same feeling as from before, _deja_ _vu_ , she was almost positive she had seen those words written somewhere. The brunette stared at the boys again, wondering why their words seemed familiar, but their faces did not.

The bus ride ended far sooner than she would have liked, and soon all of the students had filed off, crowding a large set of white marble stairs. Scarlet heard a faint whirring sound at the edged of her hearing and turned just in time to see a man in an automated wheelchair stop right in front of the group of kids. He looked to be in his mid to late fifties, with graying hair and a beard that was more on the shaggy side. His eyes were brown and kind, but very old, almost as if he'd everything there was to see -both good, and bad. Scarlet decided almost immediately, that she liked him.

"Alright now, children," the man said in an assertive voice that Scarlet noticed most teachers had, loud and upfront, but not unkind, "we will _walk_ throughout the entire tour, if you have a question, please raise your hand, and Mrs. Dodds or I will accommodate you."

Scarlet hadn't noticed before, but a middle-aged woman was standing towards the back of the group, she assumed this was Mrs. Dodds. The woman wore a leather jacket and her hair was in a tight bun on the top of her head, she seemed to have a permanent scowl plastered to her face and she had the longest nose Scarlet had ever seen; it looked more like a beak than a nose, she mused.

"And please don't touch anything," the man said, almost as an afterthought, but Scarlet noticed that he was staring pointedly at a red-headed girl with a button nose and squinted eyes, "these relics have been around for hundreds of years, it would be a shame they were to break or suddenly disappear."

The class snickered and the girl blushed so intensely that it was hard to tell where her face stopped and her hair began. The whole thing was lost on Scarlet and reminded her that she did not belong there, she promised herself that as soon as the tour was over she would tell one of the teachers that she must have gotten on the wrong bus.

When she stepped inside the museum, her breath was taken away. There were statues of gods, goddesses and heroes placed everywhere, some were decrepit and old, while others looked brand new on their shining pedestals. Paintings were hung on the walls, most of them were of scenery, while some depicted busy town squares and markets. They passed echoey galleries and rooms that were full of the famous black and orange pottery that Greece had been known for.

But the most wondrous thing, in Scarlet's opinion, was the teacher's take on the mythological tales of Greece and Rome, he didn't tell them like he had read them out of a textbook, he told them as if he had been there, seen what had happened, and was simply speaking a memory.

She wasn't the only one who was interested in his tales though, the raven-haired boy from the bus seemed just as enthralled as she was. But a group of girls behind him kept giggling and snickering, and every once in a while he would turn and tell them to 'be quiet' or 'shut up'. Scarlet could tell he was trying to keep calm, but she could see, his patience was wearing thin. And finally, he snapped.

"Will you _shut_ _up_?" It was obvious by the look on his face that the words were much louder than intended. There was an uproar of laughter from the group, and the shaggy bearded man stopped mid-sentence and turned to face the class, an eyebrow raised.

"Mr. Jackson," he said lightly, "did you have a comment?"

"No sir," the boy responded his face a bright red.

"Then perhaps," the man said, pointing at a picture that was hanging on the wall of a corridor they were passing through, "you'll tell us what this picture represents?"

The boy looked at the picture, it was a depiction of a man, holding a child up to his mouth, preparing to swallow it whole, while a woman looked on, terror written in her features. The raven-haired boy visibly relaxed.

"That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"

"Yes," the man said, "and he did this because..."

"Well..." The boy responded, then paused, thinking. "Kronos was the king god and-"

"God?" The man interrupted, his eyebrows raised. The boy sucked his bottom lip into his mouth and scratched the back of his neck. Scarlet was close enough to lean forward and give him the answer, but she hesitated, the feeling had come back again as if she had already heard this entire conversation before and she shouldn't interfere. She tried to push the feeling away and leaned forward ever so slightly.

"Titan," she whispered softly, she barely felt the word leave her lips. She saw him tense and cast her a quick glance that could have been one of gratitude, or confusion. Possibly both, Scarlet mused.

"Titan, " the boy quickly corrected himself, "and... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters," a blonde-haired girl ' _eww'ed_ at that, "and so there was this huge fight between the gods and the Titans, and the gods won."

There were a few snickers from the group. Next to her, Scarlet saw the red-haired girl from earlier flip her hair, lean to the side, and murmur into her another girl's ear.

"Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on your job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.' "

Scarlet could barely hear what she said, and she was right next to the girl, so what the teacher said next surprised her.

"And why, Mr. Jackson," he said, not looking away from the boy, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"

"Busted," she heard the curly-haired boy from the bus mutter.

"Shut up," the girl hissed, and Scarlet couldn't help but smile a little. She had a feeling that this girl, whoever she was, was a real nightmare, and the times that she got caught doing anything, were few and far between. But Scarlet's smile didn't last long as she started to process the teacher's question.

' _Why_ _does this matter in real_ _life_ '

She supposed that some of the stories had good morals to live by, but for some reason, she got the odd feeling that 'good morals' was not what he meant.

"I don't know, sir," the boy answered truthfully, shrugging his shoulders a bit.

"I see." the man said, obviously dissatisfied by the boy's answer, "Well half credit, Mr. Jackson," he continued with a sigh, "Zeus did feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld." He finished his story with a rather grave look on his face and folded his arms on his lap. "On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

In response to his question, the woman nodded and promptly told the students to follow her. Scarlet let the students pass by her with the intention on talking to the kind-eyed man in the wheelchair, but just then he called for the raven-haired boy. She didn't want to follow the class but she didn't want to be seen hanging back either. Thinking quickly, the brunette ducked behind a large statue.

"Sir?" She recognized the boy's voice. There was a short pause.

"You must learn the answer to my question." she couldn't see his face, but the girl could tell that he was wearing an expecting look.

"About the Titans?" The boy asked.

"About real life," the man corrected, "and how your studies apply to it."

"Oh." She heard surprise in the boy's voice, Scarlet was a bit surprised herself, and her eyebrows furrowed; why was he bringing this up again?

"What you learn from me is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such." Scarlet heard almost earnest in his voice. "I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."

And that was when Scarlet's whole world, fell apart.


	3. Realization

**EVERYTHING CAME** crashing down on Scarlet and she tried, in vain, to calm herself down. Standing up on shaky legs, she started walking toward the main entrance, her eyes blurry with confusion, she stumbled more than twice. That feeling she had gotten on the bus hadn't been nothing, she _had_ seen those words before, in a book. She shook her head, this was impossible, _there are over eight billion people in the world_ , _Scarlet_ , she reminded herself, _you just happened to run into the one with the same name as a character in a book._

Scarlet stumbled outside and saw kids eating their lunch on the white marble stairs, talking and laughing without a care in the world. She envied them, where their only troubles were who liked who, and trying to pass the next test. Scarlet looked at the busy street in front of the museum, people walking briskly, carrying their backpacks, suitcases, or purses, all-knowing exactly where they were going. But where was she going? She had never felt so lost.

She jumped a foot in the air when someone tapped her shoulder, she quickly turned and found the raven-haired boy - no, _Percy_ \- his eyes wide with surprise at her sudden movement and his hands raised in a gesture of surrender.

"Whoa, hey, I come in peace," he said giving her a nervous lopsided smile. "I just wanted to say thanks for what you did earlier, I probably would have looked like a giant idiot if you didn't step in."

He didn't look as she had imagined him. His black hair was messy and all over the place, as if he had run his hand through it too many times. His jacket was at least three sizes too big for his wiry frame and the dark navy color of it had been washed out. His shoes were duct-taped in places; he wasn't this extremely handsome hero, he was a normal kid, just trying to get through middle school. But when she looked into his eyes she knew he was something different.

She had always thought they would be a normal green, but they weren't just green; it was like staring into a murky lake, or the greatest depths of the ocean, but also like the bright blue of a swimming pool and the pristine glass of still water all at once. They were beautiful. They were terrifying. They were _powerful_.

"No problem," Scarlet breathed, her voice barely above a whisper. "Anytime."

The boy's nervous smile widened into a genuine one, and she noticed a dimple on his left cheek, Scarlet swallowed hard as he nodded, put his hands in his pockets, and walked away. She stood there for a while, trying to remember how to breathe. She had just been thanked by Percy Jackson, son of the sea god, a person who defeated Kronos and Gia, _in the same year_ , and had survived through the pit of Tartarus. She wasn't sure if she should laugh, scream, cry, or do all three. This couldn't be possible. Percy Jackson didn't _exist_ , he was a character in a book, created from someone else's imagination; but as she gazed down at him, sitting on the edge of a fountain, next to who she assumed was Grover Underwood, she was thinking that he seemed pretty real to her.

But something was wrong if he really was _the_ Percy Jackson, where were his battle scars, Riptide, Tyson, and most importantly, Annabeth? Percy wouldn't go anywhere outside of Camp Half-blood without Annabeth. She looked around, certain that she'd find a pretty blonde-haired, gray-eyed girl around somewhere. A jolt of realization stopped her search short. The boy was young, around her age, too young to even know Tyson yet. Scarlet squinted at the white marble beneath her feet, then the answer hit her like a ton of bricks.

They were on the field trip, _the_ field trip that started it all. This was Percy before he found out he was a demigod. Scarlet blinked in surprise, trying to figure out what this meant exactly. She refocused on Percy sitting on the edge of the fountain, gazing longingly down the street in front of the museum, a sad smile played on her lips, he was thinking about his mother. She could see the struggle on his face, he wanted so badly to just hop into a cab and go home, but he didn't want to disappoint his mom by getting kicked out of another school. Scarlet found that it was odd to know exactly what he was thinking and feeling, it was almost as if she were reading his mind, she knew exactly what he thought of his mother, how he thought that she was the most amazing person in the world. Scarlet tried to recall memories of her own mother and was surprised when she found that she couldn't. She tried again closing her eyes, this time trying to picture the color of her eyes, the gentleness of her smile, but there was nothing but the blackness behind her eyelids.

The sound of a loud splash made Scarlet's eyes snap open.

"Percy pushed me!" She heard someone yell in a rather high-pitched and annoying voice. She looked to see quite a commotion going on by the water fountain, the red-haired girl was standing by the fountain completely soaked, but a smirk was plastered on her face, almost as if she had been in an argument and had finally won. A shiver ran down Scarlet's back as her eyes landed on Mrs. Dodds, she knew what that woman really was, and the fact that she was glaring at Percy with such hatred, made her stomach twist in knots. She looked on, helplessly watching as the brown curly-haired boy, who she knew was Grover Underwood, stepped in front of Percy, only to be scolded by the Fury in disguise. The woman then started leading Percy away and back into the building, the boy stopped halfway up the steps and turned back to his curly-haired friend, before making his way up the remainder of the steps, and disappearing inside the museum.

Scarlet knew that she should stay put, she already knew what was going to happen. What was the point, really. But her body was betraying her as she slipped inside the museum, following the faint tap of feet against marble, she tried to keep her own feet silent. Why was she doing this? To prove a point, she supposed, or maybe the girl was just curious. Maybe she was hoping the teacher didn't turn into a mythological monster, maybe, she thought, maybe she didn't want for any of this to be real.

Scarlet found them in an empty gallery, she entered the room and quickly hid behind a marble pillar, she was doing an awful lot of hiding, she noted.

"Ma'am, I don't..." Percy's voice wavered and trailed off, Scarlet could tell he was frightened.

"Your time is up," Mrs. Dodds' voice hissed with such anger and disgust, it made Scarlet shake so violently that her teeth chattered. Scarlet peered around the pillar just in time to see the Fury's transformation. In the book, Percy had described what it looked like to a T, but not the sound that accompanied it; there was an almost inaudible suction sound, and, once the transformation was deemed complete, a faint pop. Scarlet would have laughed at the sound if she wasn't so terrified.

A movement caught Scarlet's eye, she turned to the entrance she had just come from and tilted her head in confusion. The middle-aged shaggy bearded teacher had wheeled himself into the doorway, holding something tightly in his hand, a look of urgency painted on his face.

"What ho, Percy!" He bellowed and threw the object into the air. And as it flew, Scarlet realized two things:

The object gliding through the air was a pen.

She now knew the identity of the tweed jacket-wearing teacher.

Scarlet had little time to process the information because then, three things happened almost too fast for her to comprehend. The first, was the Fury lunging towards Percy, her talons swiping through the air in a blur. The second, was Percy's hand snapping out to catch the pen, moving just barely enough to miss the Fury's oncoming attack. And the third was the pen ricocheting off of the boy's hand, clattering to the floor, and rolling to stop right at Scarlet's feet.

If you were to blink, you would have missed it. But Scarlet didn't blink, she didn't breathe, she didn't move, because if she did, the world would come crashing down, she was sure of it. But her limbs acted of their own accord, as she bent over and picked up the pen. The transformation was so quick, that Scarlet missed it; one second it was a pen, the next, a sword; it was bronze, as she knew it would be, but it glowed and vibrated in her hands almost as if it were alive, maybe it was, Scarlet mused. She peered up from the sword and what she saw, made her mouth dry.

Mrs. Dodds had cornered Percy, his eyes were wide with terror. Scarlet realized, possibly for the first time, that this was real, this was very, _very_ real. If Percy died, if _she_ died, there would be no do-overs, no takebacks, there would only be reality; and the reality of right now, was that Percy was cornered by a Fury, and Scarlet was holding the sword that he should have had at that moment. Without the sword he would die, Scarlet knew this with absolute certainty, and without even thinking, she started to move toward the monster. Her steps weren't rushed, or hurried, but slow and methodical, almost as if she were in a trance.

Scarlet didn't think when she stopped a foot away from the Fury, and she didn't think when she raised the sword above her head.

"Die, honey!" The monster's voice sounded gravelly and high pitched, like sandpaper on a Chalkboard.

Scarlet didn't think when she swung the sword. She didn't think about the awful squelching sound or the agonized screech that came after, or even the dust that fell down like snow, coating everything around her in a blanket of yellow. Scarlet barely noticed when the sword became a pen again, and she hardly noticed that she was not alone in the echoey gallery where something impossible had occurred. If she were a clock, her second hand would have stopped ticking.

This was the thing about the impossible, no one really stops to consider it until after the fact; Scarlet was having one of these moments. And almost as fast as it had stopped, her second hand started ticking again.

She wasn't sure how long Percy had been talking to her, she wasn't even sure how long she had been standing there in the gallery, but it must have been long enough because the boy now had grabbed her shoulders and was shaking her with some urgency. Scarlet blinked slowly as if she had just woken up from a deep sleep, and her mind slowly started to come back to the present. Sluggishly, she looked up at the boy in front of her, his black hair was covered in yellow dust, his eyes wide and frightened.

Confusion engulfed Scarlet then, her eyebrows furrowing. What had she just done? She wasn't sure, everything felt too foggy and muddled to comprehend correctly. Something felt odd, not wrong necessarily, but odd; like a famous song had switched musical keys, it didn't sound wrong, but it was _different_. Scarlet wasn't sure if this difference in the air was good or bad, and she wasn't quite sure if she liked it or not. She looked down at her hands, one was still clutching the ballpoint pen, while the other remained empty. Looking at the pen, it seemed perfectly normal, there was no sign or indication that it had ever been a sword at all, but the feeling she had gotten when she held the sword remained and warned her not to trust her eyes.

Scarlet turned her head to stare at the entrance, the teacher in the wheelchair that had been sitting there moments ago was now gone, as if he had never been there at all.

"What the hell is going on?" The boy's voice sounded shaken and brittle, Scarlet felt if she were to breathe the wrong way he would break. She turned to him, and looked into his confused, frightened, and frustrated face, and felt her heart break for him. A part of her, a very large part, wanted to tell him everything, to tell him everything was going to change, that he should brace himself, to tell him, _something_. But what would the consequences be for that action? Would he rebel against the gods? Would Olympus fall? Scarlet had no idea what he would do, and the feeling of being lost, of being so out of control, washed over her like a wave. Her mouth opened to form the words she did not want to speak, and it wasn't hard to make her voice waver.

"I don't know."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise the writing does get better as time goes on! Stick with me!


	4. Wonder

**THE** **ROOM** she stayed in was comfortable, but plain. The only thing that decorated the white walls was a small golden plaque with the room number engraved on it hanging right above the doorway. There were two of everything; two beds, two desks, two-night tables, and only one bathroom. Everything was white, so much so, that Scarlet had to squint her eyes against the brightest of it all.

It hadn't been easy to find the dorm. Scarlet had known that Yancy was an overnight Academy, but she hadn't known if she had even been enrolled at the school, let alone known where her room was if she did. But fortunately, it seemed that Scarlet was indeed enrolled at Yancy Academy, and had been going there since the beginning of the year, according to the school secretary, Jade. Although Jade didn't seem so sure of herself, Scarlet noticed that every statement she said was in the form of a question, and her eyes seemed glazed over and glassy. It was only when Scarlet had left the office with a piece of paper containing all the information she needed, that she realized that this might be an effect of the infamous Mist, the invisible vale that separated humans from the truth of their world. The truth being that monsters and gods walked the same streets they did.

Scarlet had looked at the paper Jade the secretary had given her and just stared at her name. Her name that she didn't remember.

_Scarlet.A Reed_

Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at a picture of herself that she didn't remember posing for. The girl that stared back at her had large brown eyes and a heart-shaped face. Scarlet's eyes followed a splash of freckles spread across the bridge of her nose to both of her cheeks, bobbed dark brown hair fell just past her delicate chin. The girl looked normal in every sense of the word, nothing extraordinary about the way she posed, a small smile on her full lips.

Scarlet had stared at that photo for a long while, not noticing or really caring that she was standing in the middle of the main hallway of the academy. Her honey eyes roaming over the paper and her hand holding on to it as if it were a lifeline. None of this made any sense; she somehow knew of the future because all of the events had already been written down in a book she had read, and yet she knew absolutely nothing of her own person. The brunette let out a sigh of frustration, folding up the sheet of paper and tucking it away in the pocket of her jeans, her hands now only held the dark turquoise journal she had acquired on the bus. Scarlet flipped it open mindlessly, and then promptly dropped it. The girl cursed her clumsy hands and picked the book up off the tiled floor, some of its pages crippled slightly.

Scarlet almost dropped the book again when she saw the writing. The handwriting was jagged and harsh, but precise, like a surgical scalpel; and she was certain that it hadn't been there before. But what confused her, even more, was the message this person had left.

**_Είστε το μέλλον σας περιμένει,_ **   
**_Βοηθήσει το αγόρι._ **

Scarlet didn't know what language it was written in as she stared, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion and a headache started to form at her temples. More mysteries and questions went unanswered; a deep frown weathered her face as she wondered at her own situation.

"Ms. Reed." At the sound of the voice, Scarlet nearly jumped out of her skin, and as she turned around she contemplated why the people here tend to sneak up on her at the most inopportune times. She, however, stopped being annoyed after she beheld the person in front of her. The scruffily bearded teacher sat in his wheelchair looking at her expectantly; although she thought she had ought to call him Chiron, and she almost did, when she remembered that at this point in time everyone thought that he was simply a disabled teacher who taught Greek Mythology, not an ancient Centaur who had lived for hundreds of years.

"Hello...er, Mr. Burnner." It felt odd to say his name aloud, she only hoped that he mistook her hesitation for her being surprised at his sudden appearance --which she was.

"I would like to talk to you about earlier today." Internally, Scarlet started to panic and she shifted nervously on her feet. Could he see through the Mist? She knew that the school Secretary couldn't, but then again she was human, Chiron was not. So many thoughts ran through her brain that she could barely speak, but the girl managed to croak out a single word.

"Oh?"

"Yes, the incident with Ms. Bobofit and Mr. Jackson. I've asked the majority of the class what happened leading up to Nancy's unexpected swim in the water fountain. They've all said that before Perseus went to the fountain he stopped to talk to you," the Centaur clarified, his stare barring down on her, "it's highly unusual for you to be so... talkative, especially to Percy."

A colorful explosion of curse words burst into Scarlet's mind at that. She figured that she might have been acting out of character, but how in the world was she supposed to act? She knew absolutely nothing about herself, let alone how she acted _here_.

A sudden thought interrupted her panicked and frustrated brain. She could use this to her advantage if she played her cards right, she just had to calm down and think. From what she knew, Percy was going to get expelled, there was nothing she could do at this point to change that fact. Scarlet knew that she didn't need to follow the boy, but she found that she wanted to. Just to see, to observe, and if she wanted to continue doing that, she'd have to get kicked out as well.

"I told him to do it," Scarlet blurted, her entire face heating as Chiron's eyebrows rose in surprise and he blinked. Scarlet took the chance to continue, "It was my idea, I told him and I was planning on doing it myself, but he beat me to it."

"I– well, this is certainly not an outcome I was not expecting," the centaur cleared his throat rather awkwardly and continued, "is there any particular reason as to why you wanted to push Ms. Bobofit into the fountain?"

Scarlet thought for a moment then nodded, her eyes making their way down to the tiled floor. "She was throwing food at Grover on the bus. Percy said he was gonna do something about it, but Grover talked him down and I was just– _so_ angry," Scarlet was surprised to find that her feelings were genuine. Even though her confusion at the time, she had felt a sharp edge of anger.

The girl looked up when a large hand clasped around her shoulder. Scarlet looked up and into the Centaur's eyes which held disappointment, but also understanding.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to take this information to the principal," Chiron sighed, but Scarlet could have cheered. She had to try very hard to keep the smile from her lips. "In the meantime, I have a proposal for you, Scarlet. I would like for you to tutor Percy for the next few weeks."

This caught the girl off guard. It must have shown on her face because Chiron gave her a friendly smile.

"Don't worry, Ms. Reed, it's only a few things I think he could use some help in. I'm sure you can handle it." Scarlet nodded because she couldn't very well say no. And perhaps it was also that she wanted to see the soon-to-be-legendary son of Poseidon again.

She only hoped he didn't hate her.


	5. Deception

**AS SOON AS SCARLET** saw Percy enter the library, she knew he was angry. The brunette supposed that anyone could have waved off the clenched fists and rigid posture as nervousness, or frustration. But it was his eyes that told his true feelings. They had changed since the day before, a deep desaturated blue that was almost gray; the color of the sea during a raging storm. And Percy was anything if not raging.

The brunette watched silently as the boy slammed his textbooks onto the table where she sat, and then took a seat himself. Percy was an hour late, but Scarlet elected not to notify him of that. He didn't look at Scarlet. He didn't seem to be looking at anything, really. It felt rather odd just sitting there in the tense quiet, she had to say _something_.

"Um, hello... Again." Scarlet's voice was a weak whisper but in the almost total silence of the large library, it was more than audible. Across from her, the boy's eyes flicked up to meet her's for a fraction of a second before returning to the surface of the polished wooden table.

"Hi." His voice was short and clipped, it felt more like a slap in the face to Scarlet than an actual response. The girl winced slightly and found herself looking down at the table.

"I'm-" The brunette leaned over to pick her own textbooks off the ground next to her, "-I'm supposed to be tutoring you."

Percy didn't glance up this time when he responded, "I _know_." Scarlet had never heard someone sound so irritated with her before. Well, perhaps she _did_ at one point, but simply couldn't remember. At this moment in time, she was glad she didn't remember because it was not a pleasant emotion to have directed at one's self. Especially when the person directing said emotion at you was the only thing you truly knew anything about.

Scarlet tugged on a lock of her short brown hair and thought of how she should approach this. Logically, someone in a situation such as hers would ask the distressed individual why they were upset. But in this case, Scarlet already knew what was bothering Percy; well, she thought she knew, anyway. So asking the boy what his problem was would probably only serve to make things worse.

"If it makes you feel any better, I got in trouble too, " Scarlet murmured. What she said most likely didn't make him feel better, but that wasn't the point. The point was to get Percy's attention, and thankfully, he took the bait.

Scarlet looked up in time to see Percy sit back in his chair and look up at her, the boy's jaw was set in a way that told her he was curious, and that he was _not_ happy about that fact. Locks of black hair swept across his forehead as he tilted his head to the side and narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"I, uh, " she stammered, the girl put her fist to her mouth and cleared her throat. She adjusted herself in her chair before continuing. "Mr. Burner, he kinda- well he didn't kinda, he _did_ come up to me yesterday to ask about the uh... the water fountain thing. I, um, well I didn't think it was fair that you got in trouble, especially after the whole-" Scarlet paused to make a complicated hand gesture, "- _thing_ during the trip and no one remembers anything about Ms. Dodds and I feel like I might be going crazy and-"

"Wait wait wait, " Percy shook his head and rested his hands on the table in front of him, leaning forward slightly, "what exactly did you say to Mr. Burner?"

Scarlet shifted in her seat again and pinned her hands under her legs. Her eyes were locked on the cover of a textbook on the table that read ' _The Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology_ ' "I told him I helped you."

"Jesus, Scarlet, " the boy groaned as he propped his elbows on the table and buried his head in his hands. A slight thrill went through Scarlet at the sound of her name, she had thought he hadn't known it, but of course, he did, they were classmates after all. "You _really_ didn't have to do that."

There were annoyance and irritation in his voice again; that made Scarlet feel a bit annoyed herself. The brunette untucked her hands from underneath her legs to cross her arms over her chest. The girl didn't know why she was so bothered by this, it wasn't as if she needed the boy to like her, but she found that she wanted him to. And the fact that he was making the entire process difficult did not put Scarlet in the best of moods.

"Well, I didn't do it just for you." Her voice was still soft, but it held obvious disdain. Scarlet thought what she had said might have been a lie though. At this point, all she knew was Percy, she didn't even know _herself_ yet. The boy snorted.

"Oh, really? Who'd you do it for?"

"Myself."

Percy's eyebrows rose, the corners of his mouth slightly twitching up into the ghost of a smile. "Why the hell would you want to get in trouble? Cheap thrills?"

Scarlet leveled the boy with a look. She pressed her lips into a thin line and shook her head slowly. He wanted to know, and she couldn't exactly blame him for being curious, but the girl couldn't think of a plausible lie. The truth would have to do.

"I don't want to get in trouble, I want to get expelled."

Before Percy or Scarlet could say anything more, a bell rang throughout the room. Scarlet quickly jumped to her feet and gathered her books. The girl walked briskly out of the library, but not before catching a glance of Percy's shocked and confused face.

°•°•°•°

 **PERCY** **DECIDED THAT** Scarlet Reed, was more of a mystery than he had once thought. She had been a riddle to him before, but back then the boy had been positive she hated him.

Percy was used to being hated. Hate was a bitter thing, but when it was shoved down your throat enough, you tended not to mind the taste. This was the case with Nancy and her friends; that kind of hate he was used to, he could deal with that. Scarlet had shown him hate he hadn't known existed.

The girl hadn't yelled at him or glared or had even laughed mockingly. No; Scarlet ignored him completely. Though, _ignore_ was a bit weak of a word to describe how entirely she discounted his existence.

Scarlet wasn't exactly a talkative person, so the boy hadn't really noticed her behavior toward him before. It wasn't until they had been paired for a project in their shared math class that he had noticed something was off. The thing was, the girl wasn't exactly rude, it was just as if she couldn't be bothered by him. She didn't talk to him, and she didn't look him in the eye. Percy didn't know why that hurt more than someone throwing insults at him.

The boy couldn't tell you why he had felt so elated when she had talked to him for the first time, and when she had continued to talk to him afterward. It irritated Percy. He shouldn't _want_ to like Scarlet, but he found that he did. The more he talked to her, the more mixed his emotions became.

Percy had come to the library on time the next day. He told himself that this was due to the fact that he had arrived about an hour late the last time and Scarlet had bolted out of the room as soon as the bell rang. Which had been unfortunate because their conversation was just starting to get interesting.

_I don't want to get in trouble, I want to get expelled._

To Percy, that didn't make a lick of sense. Who in their right mind would want to get kicked out of school _on purpose_? Sure, some of the teachers were a little uptight, but Yancy was a pretty nice school if you asked him, Percy would give almost anything to be able to stay. It was such a foreign concept to the boy that he had spent the majority of the night tossing and turning in his bed, trying to figure out the girl.

What irritated him, even more, was that he couldn't even talk to Grover about it. Ever since the _incident -_ as he had taken to calling it - the hazel-eyed boy had been actively avoiding him. Which, after Scarlet's recent interest in him, was incredibly ironic and slightly poetic. Grover had been just as curious about the girl as Percy was, possibly even more so.

Both boys agreed that there was something strange about Scarlet; she never seemed to be quite _there_. She was always staring off into the distance, at no time was the girl ever paying attention. Having ADHD himself, Percy could relate to that, but the brunette took it to a whole different level.

Half of the school thought she was mute, the other half were sure she was; the first time Percy had heard her voice, he thought he had imagined it. It wasn't that Scarlet's voice was soft, or dreamy, it was that it seemed like it took a lot of effort on her part to get the words out. Every syllable was a struggle. But now, it seemed she had no trouble at all.

Percy would be lying if he said that he didn't enjoy the library. Most of the room was empty, save for a few scattered work tables and bookcases. The walls - from floor to ceiling - were covered in books, some new, but most of them were old volumes that even a person like Percy could tell were loved and cherished. Due to the fact that Yancy was a school for troublemakers, the volumes were left untouched (books _were_ lame, after all). The library itself wasn't a very popular place for most of the students, which, in turn, made it one of the few places in the Academy that were peaceful.

The raven-haired boy found Scarlet, not at the table in the center of the room they sat at the day before, but at one that was next to one of the large windows. The windows faced west, and every evening the library seem to catch fire with the dying light of the sun. Percy looked at the carpet that was normally a deep blue in the daytime, awash in hues of gold and, well... _scarlet_.

Percy moved toward the girl, his steps muffled by the thick plush carpet beneath his feet. He studied Scarlet as he approached; she was looking out the window, her elbow propped on the wooden table and her head resting in the palm of her hand. Her other hand rested on the table, fingernails _tap, tap, tapping_ on the cover of a textbook. The brunette looked deep in thought, but not vacant. All Percy could think was that Scarlet looked _awake_ as if all the other times he'd seen her she had somehow been sleeping.

Percy slid into the seat across from her and dropped his own textbooks on the table before him with a _thump_. Scarlet snapped out of her thoughts at the sound, caught sight of him, and let out an alarmed squeak. The boy couldn't help but give her a slightly smug smirk. She was nearly as jumpy as Grover.

"Welcome back to Earth, Space Cadet, " he announced with a mock salute. His smile widened when she narrowed her eyes at him.

Scarlet shook her head and began to open a math textbook. Percy tutted, reached across the table, and snatched the book from her; he was rewarded with Scarlet's baffled expression as he closed the text and placed it on top of his own. The thought that she was thinking they'd be doing any actual work was laughable. Percy could understand why Mr. Burner had given Scarlet the task, but it really didn't matter at this point. The boy was a C average at _best_ , and raising his grades at the last minute wouldn't change the fact that he was getting kicked out of another school.

Even though it was a different school, the process was the same. Most of the time, the expulsion was immediate, Percy preferred that; though sometimes the school would let him stay till the end of the year or semester, then send his mother a letter saying he would not be invited back. Those years were the worst, he would become a ghost of himself, his shoulders weighed down by anger and disappointment. The only thing that kept the boy grounded was his mother. She distracted him with promises they both knew she couldn't keep, and with love.

But this year his mother couldn't help him, and Percy knew that if he didn't find something to distract himself with soon, he would do something truly stupid.

Percy looked at Scarlet to find that her entire face was blushing the color of her name, out of embarrassment or anger, he didn't know. Her lips were pursed and her honey-colored eyes were now fully glaring at him. Percy marveled at the emotions on her face, she hadn't really expressed anything other than disinterest and mild irritation before. At that moment, with the golden light of the sunset setting her hair ablaze, Percy decided Scarlet Reed, was the _perfect_ distraction.


	6. Understanding

**SCARLET WAS CERTAIN** that tutoring Percy Jackson was quite possibly the worst decision she had ever made in her life (to her knowledge, of course).

It wasn't that the son of Poseidon was mean or rude to her, it was simply that he wouldn't leave her alone. Of course, he would talk and talking involved questions, and Percy asked many, _many_ questions. This was an obvious problem for Scarlet, given that she couldn't tell you what her favorite food was, let alone what her parents were like.

She had told him she had grown up in the Foster Care system and therefore hadn't really had any parents. This was true, as that was written on the piece of paper she had received from Jade the Secretary; but as she herself could not recall the information, she would only count that as a half-truth. By the look of sympathy the boy had given her and the quick apology afterward, Scarlet figured she must have said something right. The brunette felt bad for lying, but she couldn't deny that she was very good at it. The girl pulled false information out of the air as a magician would a coin; it scared her slightly. Indeed, she wondered what she could have done in the past to make deceiving people a necessary skill.

The next three days of tutoring Percy went much like the first: Scarlet trying to get the boy to study, and him somehow turning the entire thing into an interrogation. The brunette answered his never-ending questions by ignoring him or lying. More often than not it was the latter. Once, the boy had asked what her favorite color was, she had mindlessly said green. Scarlet had no idea if she even _liked_ the color, let alone call it her favorite. It was now, apparently.

On the fourth day, a Friday, Scarlet had given up. The girl figured Percy felt the same way because instead of sitting at one of the tables near the windows, he lay in the middle of the carpeted library floor on his back, arms and legs spread. The brunette sat on the floor as well, though she did not lay down, the girl instead placed a textbook on her lap and began to read silently.

"What do you think of space?" Percy asked abruptly, Scarlet looked up from her book and peered at the boy. This wasn't an unusual occurrence, Percy would often fill the silence with questions that ranged from incredibly personal, to outlandishly random. Scarlet tilted her head and considered the current question he posed.

"Space is nice. Stars are cool. Black holes scare me though." The brunette's voice was soft as she gently closed the text, recalling the lesson in their science class the day before. "Their gravitational pull is so strong that not even light can escape once it's past the event horizon."

Percy nodded, his gaze pinned to the ceiling, "Fucking black holes, man." Scarlet blinked, still quite unused to the fact that he actually cursed. In the books, the only time he had come close to using any form of truly foul language was in _The Titans Curse_ , and even that had just been a play on words.

Scarlet thought about the future to come and wondered what it would be like to actually experience it. Dread weighed down the girl's stomach, but right under the coils of dread fluttered the tiny wings of excitement. The brunette couldn't deny that she wanted to see _everything_ , both the beautiful and horrible; even her encounter with the Fury had left Scarlet in a state of complete amazement, though the image of its Cheshire smile was forever burned into her mind.

The brunette's thoughts shifted to the raven-haired boy sprawled across the carpet. Scarlet knew Percy's future, she knew what would happen very soon and she knew what would happen in the years to come. Though one thing still nagged at the edges of her mind.

_Have I changed something?_

Both the attack and the fact that Scarlet even existed here were anomalies. In the first book, Percy defeated the Fury all on his own after Chiron had thrown him the pen. That, obviously, did not happen, but was that due to her, or to something else entirely? Scarlet remembered the feeling she had gotten in the gallery at the museum, that quiet sense of dissonance in the air, the knowing that something was not quite _right_ ; she was sure it hadn't been nothing.

"I never thanked you." Scarlet startled slightly, realizing that Percy had once again broken the silence that settled around them.

The brunette's eyebrows furrowed in confusion at the boy's statement. His head turned in her direction and their gazes met; Scarlet noted that his eyes were a deeply saturated emerald green today.

"You know, for like saving me, or whatever. From the thing- Ms. Dodds. Just- thank you, I guess," the boy clarified and looked away. Scarlet felt something warm and sweet begin to bloom in the center of her chest. Though he wasn't looking, Scarlet smiled.

"You're welcome," she said, her eyes dropping to her lap, "anytime."

"I'm just happy to know I'm not totally nuts, you know? What do you think that thing was?" Percy turned his head to face Scarlet again, his eyes inquisitive. The girl plastered a frown on her face and shook her head a bit.

"I have no idea. I've never seen anything like it. What do you think happened to make everyone forget Ms. Dodds?"

"Don't know, but with my luck, we both might have just hallucinated the whole thing." the boy let out a deep sigh then and his face became weary, it made him look far older than he was. Scarlet's eyebrows furrowed at Percy's response, remembering that at this point in time he thought himself crazy. That fact didn't sit well in the girl's stomach. She pursed her lips, honey eyes narrowing slightly.

"So do you think I'm crazy now?" Her voice was harsh, perhaps a bit too harsh because Percy's eyes widened, baffled at her exclamation.

"I–What? No," Percy sputtered, shaking his head adamantly. The brunette crossed her arms over her chest and gave the boy a stern look.

"Then that means you aren't crazy either. I know what I saw, and you saw the same thing. Both of us can't be wrong." Scarlet's voice for the first time was strong and even, sure. She barely recognized herself as she raised a brow. "Unless we're both on meds we didn't know we were taking, you and I are perfectly sane."

Percy blinked at her and sat up, his mouth frozen in an ' _oh_ ' before he slowly, _slowly_ began to nod. He ran a hand through his ebony locks, nodding all the while.

"Yeah," he murmured, "yeah, you're right." The way he spoke made Scarlet think he was assuring himself more than her. Something in her heart twisted as the girl realized this was probably the first time anyone had bothered to tell the boy he wasn't a complete loon.

Overcome with an emotion she couldn't name, the brunette moved forward on her knees and placed a hand on Percy's shoulder. Their eyes met, and this time Scarlet didn't look away.

"You're not crazy, Perseus."

And with that, the two spent the remainder of their time in the library in companionable silence.

•°•°•°•°•°•

 **PERCY LIE AWAKE THAT NIGHT,** unable to sleep. Normally sleeping didn't come as much of a challenge, but tonight it eluded him. Though not for negative reasons, a dopey grin was plastered on the boys' lips. Perhaps it was stupid to feel so elated after that, but he couldn't help himself.

 _You're not crazy, Perseus_.

A weight Percy hadn't even know was on his shoulders had been lifted when the brunette said that. An overwhelming sense of gratitude seemed to ooze from his every pour. That was more reassurance about his situation than anyone had ever given him; even his mother hadn't outright told the boy.

 _You're not crazy_.

What he saw was real, the things he experienced were real. While there was a certain amount of comfort that came with that knowledge, Percy also sensed a generous helping of terror being heaped on a plate that was already full. The boy wasn't exactly sure how to process all of the emotions he was feeling and he was certain that was why sleep avoided him. The son of Poseidon stared at the ceiling of his dorm, covers crumpled in a ball at the foot of his bed, his mind once again on Scarlet.

The girl confused him in almost every way imaginable, she was full of contradictions and oddities. He was at least happy that she kept talking to him after the attack at the museum, Percy didn't know what he would have done if her cold silence continued after that. As odd as it was to admit, Scarlet had given him a gift today, a gift that meant more to the boy than she would ever know. At that moment Percy decided he didn't need to understand why the brunette wanted to get expelled (as ridiculous as the notion was) because he would help her; whether she wanted his assistance or not. After all, if there was one thing he was good at, it was getting kicked out of schools.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, now we're up to date on where we are on Wattpad. The next chapter is coming out soon!


	7. Expulsion

**"NO," SCARLET HUFFED** , arms crossed.

"But it's a good idea!" The son of Poseidon insisted, throwing his hands up in the air. "You wanna get kicked out anyway, who the hell cares how you do it?"

"I'm not cutting off Nancy's hair," The girl deadpanned, "I would probably be charged with assault or something if I did." Scarlet tugged at a lock of her own hair nervously, her eyes on the ground, eyebrows furrowed. "Can't we just steal test answers?"

Percy shrugged and shook his head, "Stealing's not my forte -I wouldn't even know the first place to look- _and_ it would probably take too long to figure out anyway."

The girl groaned, slumping down on a desk chair. They were in Percy's shared dorm with Grover; the Satyr, however, was nowhere to be seen, leaving the two to speak freely. Scarlet noticed there were no real differences between her dorm and the boys, though it was a bit messier... and perhaps more smelly.

"So you're telling me this bad luck of yours only comes into play during field trips?" Scarlet inquired.

"Pretty much. Everyone's got a talent, you know." The brunette huffed out a laugh.

"That's a real niche talent you've got there," Scarlet drawled. The brunette turned in her seat to look out the window in the far right of the room. Murky light soaked through the overcast sky and filtered everything through a spectrum of gray, causing things normally bold with color to become dull. Rain pelted incessantly on the glass, the sound so mundane that she nearly forgot she was in a magical world.

None of this felt like anything particularly magical would or even _could_ happen. It all felt very bleak if you were to ask Scarlet. And if the girl was being truly candid with herself, she was beginning to doubt what she saw at the museum; which was, in short, absolutely ridiculous. But every time the brunette tried to reassure Percy the things they saw were real, she found that his doubts were slowly becoming her own. Maybe she had changed too much by interfering with the events with the Fury. Or perhaps simply her existence was enough to throw things completely off track.

Then there was the question of what exactly she was to do when she made it to Camp Half-Blood; after she figured out how to get there, of course. What if she couldn't even get in? The camp was notorious for not letting humans enter, there was always a possibility she was like Rachel, a human with clear sight. Scarlet sighed in resignation, there was no way of knowing exactly what she was until she got there. However her mounting panic didn't seem to care about the logistics of the situation.

"-Scarlet?"

The girl in question blinked, her mind snapping out of the cloud it found itself in. She looked over at Percy, who lay on his bed flat on his back, hands behind his head, a dark eyebrow raised in question.

"What?" The girl asked, still slightly dazed.

"Why do you wanna get expelled?" There was something about the way Percy phrased his question that threw Scarlet completely off-kilter. It was the conviction of his voice, or more accurately, lack thereof. He asked her in a way that made the brunette reckon he didn't care about the answer, which was bizarre, considering only a few days beforehand it had seemed the only thing he wanted to know. A tendril of suspicion coiled in the girls' gut; why was he being so casual about it now? Scarlet assessed him for a moment. She pondered if this was just a new tactic to get information out of her; but she _knew_ Percy, and as talkative as he could be, he wasn't some sort of mass manipulator. The boy was smart, just not in that way.

Scarlet let out a sigh that was weary and tired, leaning back in the desk chair she sat on. "I don't know, I just-," she let out another breath of air, irritated at herself for not knowing the right words, "I feel so lost. I don't know who I am, or... or where I'm supposed to go. All I know is that I don't want to go... _home_. Which sounds crazy, but-" Scarlet stopped speaking for a moment, completely lost in a feeling of helplessness that seemed almost overwhelming.

A hand was gently placed on Scarlet's shoulder and she jumped slightly, her eyes looking up to see Percy, a look of not pity, but pure understanding on his face. As if he somehow knew _exactly_ what she was feeling. It was disconcerting but also strangely comforting. The brunette stared up into his eyes, the dull pale green of them seeming to reflect the somber mood. They stayed like that for a few moments, silence coating the space between them like a thick blanket.

"Scarlet, I don't think you want to get expelled," the boy said slowly, as if just realizing it himself, "you might- well I think you might wanna run away."

The words were a punch in the gut, and Scarlet found that she could barely breathe. Her mouth opened, then snapped shut before opening again. The truth of that statement rang clearer than any bell. It was so obvious now, how could she have not known that was what she truly wanted, what she needed? Running away was the obvious option, but where would she go? To camp Half-Blood? As much as she could remember about the books she couldn't quite recall the address of the magical camp.

Scarlet found her breathing again, but now it was far too fast. Everything in her vision blurred and she couldn't think; the brunette squeezed her eyes shut as if closing them would somehow make her confusion and terror suddenly disappear. The girl brought her hands to her face only to find them covered in wetness.

"Scarlet- _Scar_ \- hey, look at me." The boy's voice was so uncharacteristically soft, Scarlet peered into his eyes more out of surprise than anything else, he was still near, something akin to concern awash on his face. Percy gave her a warm smile that was somehow full of worry and reassurance all at once. "You can stay with me."

Scarlet was confused by his words for a moment, her breaths coming out in uneven hitches. When she did fully comprehend his words the brunette began to shake her head, eyes widening. Her heart raced; she was changing things- but Percy's lips pursed into a thin line, a look of pure determination on his face.

"Tell me you have somewhere to go." Scarlet paused, again confused. He continued, "Tell me you have somewhere else to go and I'll drop it."

Scarlet opened her mouth to speak, only to have nothing to say. What could she say? The girl could lie, say she had some sort of estranged Uncle somewhere, she supposed. But something told her Percy would know that was untrue. The silence between them stretched. The boy knew he had her pinned to a wall, a fly caught in honey, and there was nothing, _nothing_ she could say. Percy tilted his head as he appraised her, and found her wanting. Scarlet watched as he raised a brow, a cocky, triumphant smile playing at the corners of his lips.

"Cool, so you'll just get on the same bus I do after school ends," he said plainly, walking back to his bed and flopping down on his back.

Scarlet blinked, too stunned to speak. After a moment, a wave of irritation overcame her that was quickly followed by anger. She glared at Percy and -much to her displeasure- stayed silent. 

°•°•°•°•°

 **PERCY'S SMUG VICTORY** didn't last long. He had invited Scarlet to his dorm to talk, yes, but beforehand she had convinced him to brush up on some studying before finals. After the boy had said the last word she promptly pulled out _'The Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology'_ along with a couple of other texts. Just the sight of the books made him groan internally.

They started with math, and it had taken about five minutes for the boy to stand up and begin pacing like some sort of caged animal. Frustration simmered in the pit of his stomach like it always did; it wasn't the math itself he had trouble with -math was actually one of his best subjects- it was the reading that accompanied the equations. Percy was certain word problems existed solely to piss him off. Scarlet must have caught on to his irritation because she offered to work on English instead.

As if that were any better.

He opened the English textbook, stared at the wall of impossible to read text that adorned the pages, and closed it. The boy stood in the middle of the room, no longer pacing, and peered out the window. The view overlooked the vast courtyard two stories below; it was a lovely mix of polished granite tiles and patches of rich dark soil that he knew would bloom small red flowers in late summer. 

Percy wouldn't get to see them bloom again.

"Would me reading out loud help?" the girl offered.

"Even if it did, do you really think it would make a difference?" His words were far sharper than intended and the boy turned just in time to see Scarlet wince and lower her eyes to the ground. "Sorry," he said quickly, genuinely apologetic, "I didn't mean- I just-" Percy let out a breath and pinched the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut.

It wasn't her fault the boy had trouble with _everything_ , he knew that, but his frustration was now at a boiling point. Studying was hopeless, and he felt so damn trapped. No matter how good he was, how kind, how willing, something impossible always stood in the metaphorical road before him. The feeling made Percy want to scream; the boy could feel the sound clawing its way up his throat, desperate for release. 

"Latin?" Scarlet's voice was so soft he almost didn't hear the question. Percy's thoughts stopped for a moment. Latin was his favorite class for many reasons, but the primary one being Mr. Burner. The middle-aged man was kind and made the boy laugh; made him feel like he wasn't as much of a fuck-up. Percy stared at the mythology book on his bed and recalled the words the teacher had spoken to him, such seriousness in his old eyes. 

_I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson._

Percy wasn't sure if it was his recollection of the words or the fact that he had no other options left that had him moving. He grabbed the mythology text and was already halfway to the door when he remembered Scarlet. The boy looked back, his hand on the handle. 

"Are you coming?"

°•°•°•°•°

 **PERCY AND SCARLET** made their way down to the faculty offices with little trouble, though it was evident by the darkened rooms that most had already called it a night. However, it seemed Mr. Burner was doing some late-night grading as his door was slightly ajar. A bright sliver of warm yellow light stretching across the hallway. 

Scarlet glanced at the boy walking beside her, finding him tense and withdrawn, clutching the textbook under an arm. The girl wondered at his reaction only for a moment before realizing that Percy was nervous, frightened even. Though the brunette could tell from his posture and the way he walked that this fear was not comparable to the terror they both felt at the museum, this was something different, heavier somehow. A sour-tinged sadness enveloped the girl and without thinking, she reached down clasping Percy's free hand with her own. The boy jumped slightly at the contact and Scarlet squeezed his hand in what she hoped was a gesture of reassurance. Percy's shoulders relaxed and he gave her a grateful smile that she gladly returned.

As they neared the office Scarlet heard the faint murmur of voices that quickly solidified into quick tense works from a now familiar voice.

"...worried about Percy, sir."

In almost the same moment Percy and Scarlet froze. They quickly shared a glance, both equally as confused by the sudden turn of events. Why was Grover talking to Mr.Burner and why was he talking about Percy? Scarlet found that, for once, she did not know. The girl quickly deduced that this particular event was either not written in the books, or she had simply forgotten it had happened. Still holding her hand, Percy inched a bit closer to the door.

"...alone this summer, I mean, a Kindly One in the _school!_ " Grover exclaimed sounding entirely baffled, "Now that we know for sure and _they_ know too-"

 _"They?"_ Percy silently mouthed to Scarlet. The girl only shrugged in response, still quite confused herself.

"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Burnner sighed and Scarlet could almost imagine the centaur shaking his head. "We need him to mature more."

"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline-"

Scarlet's eyes widened as everything finally clicked. Zeus's Lightning Bolt had been stolen and Percy was the suspected thief. The summer solstice was the deadline for its return, and if it was not returned by June 21st the God equivalent of World War III would ensue. That was the plot for the first book, she knew, but what surprised her was that Grover was suggesting they take him to camp _now_. Scarlet was inclined to agree; so much could be avoided if they just took him now, Sally Jackson would never be taken to the underworld, Percy wouldn't think she was dead, and he would have more time to prepare for his quest.

"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover," Chiron said firmly. "Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."

Scarlet wanted to scream that his ignorance would not be intact in a few days anyway, but she remained silent, a deep frown on her face.

"And Scarlet?" Grover asked in a slightly different tone, confusion perhaps, but Scarlet hardly cared. Her stomach hollowed out, and something dangerously close to dread coiled around her mind. _Her_. They were talking about her.

"She was... unexpected. But the same applies to Scarlet; nothing good can come of telling the girl, of telling both of them." 

"Sir, they _saw_ her..."

"Their imagination," the centaur reassured, "the Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince them of that." 

Frustration and surprise overcame the girl then because he was _right_. She _had_ begun to doubt herself, wondering if it had been some strange shared dream. She knew now everything was frightfully real and she had somehow found herself directly in the center of it. Scarlet didn't realize she had stopped breathing until her chest ached from the lack of air, the brunette inhaled shakily. Something squeezed her hand and she peered down finding her fingers still intertwined with Percy's. The girl glanced at him and found his face bunched with concern.

 _Are you okay?_ He seemed to silently ask.

Despite their current situation, Scarlet felt that familiar honey-sweet warmth bloom in her chest once again. The girl managed to give him a small smile of reassurance, softly squeezed his hand back, and gave him a small nod.

"Sir, I... I can't fail in my duties again." The quiver of emotion in the satyr's voice made Scarlet's heart ache. "You know what that would mean."

"You haven't failed, Grover," Chiron said softly, kindness pouring from every word. "I should have seen her for what she was." The centaur let out a breath, his tone now laced with guilt. "Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-" 

Chiron's words were interrupted by a loud thud that echoed off the walls of the dimly lit corridor. It took Scarlet a moment to realize what had happened; Percy had dropped _'The Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology'_ in shock, she assumed, but Chiron had stopped speaking. The silence that followed was deafening. Percy knelt, grabbing the text quickly before tightening his grip on Scarlet's hand pulling her away from Mr. Burnner's office. She tried to keep up with the boy, nearly tripping more than once. He opened the door of a vacant office across the hall and Scarlet let go of his hand to run inside. Percy was right behind her, slipping inside and gripping the handle of the door, closing it silently.

They both stood in the darkened office as silently as they could. Scarlet found that her ragged breathing was far, _far_ too loud and she pressed both hands to her lips in an attempt to lessen the noise just as the sound of hooves on tile filled her ears. Shaking, the girl closed her eyes as the clopping grew closer, closer... Then ceased. The brunette opened her eyes to find that beyond the frosted glass of the office door, a large shadow loomed. Scarlet risked a look at Percy, his eyes were wide, a trail of sweat running down his temple, silently mouthing _'What the fuck?'_ repeatedly. 

A bout of knee-wobbling relief washed over Scarlet as the shadow finally moved on. The two remained silent with bated breath as further down the hall, they heard Mr. Burnner's baritone lilt echo to them.

"Nothing," the centaur murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."

"Mine neither," Grover's reedy voice agreed, "but I could have sworn..."

"Go back to the dorm, you've got a long day of exams tomorrow," the teacher chided teasingly.

Grover groaned in response. "Don't remind me."

There was the faint sound of retreating footsteps, and the light that had been flooding from Mr. Burnner's office flickered out, leaving Percy and Scarlet in near-complete darkness. Seconds dripped by; no other sound save Scarlet's muffled breathing permeated in the room or corridor beyond. The brunette felt more than saw Percy move to her side, he gently intertwined his fingers with her own. Giving her hand a light squeeze, he began to move toward the office door. The boy unlatched it slowly, peeking his head out first, before opening the door wider and guiding her into the hall. He turned, closing the door behind her just as soundlessly as he had the first time.

Scarlet was surprised she managed to make it up the three flights of stairs required to get to the dorms. Her legs were jelly and her heart was still fluttering in her chest wildly. The girl's mind was racing, completely baffled by the fact that they had been discussing her; that had most certainly not been in the books. From what she could tell they seemed to think she was just another unclaimed demigod like Percy, and she silently wondered if that was the case. If so, who were her parents? Why did she know so much of the future and why the hell couldn't she remember who she was?

When Percy stopped walking they found themselves in the intersection between the boy and girl's dorms. Due to the late hour, the hall thankfully was empty and the boy turned to her, panting slightly; whether that was due to the stairs or what they had witnessed in the faculty offices, Scarlet wasn't quite sure. He finally let go of her hand and jabbed a finger in the direction they had just come from.

"They knew," the boy hissed, his entire body lightly shaking. "They fucking _knew_."

"Yes," Scarlet replied flatly, unsure of what to say for a moment before settling on, "but they don't know that we know."

Percy narrowed his eyes at her. "How are you not pissed?"

"I'm more confused than anything else," she stated honestly, "I mean, what's the endgame?"

Percy simply looked at her for a moment an expression of complete and utter disbelief consuming his features before burying his face in his hands. He let out a muffled groan and his arms fell to his sides. Percy then gazed at Scarlet with a frankness that almost made her uncomfortable.

"I'm gonna head to bed," he stated shortly and promptly headed in the direction of the boy's dorms without another word. She let him go without protest, too shocked to say anything, listening to his footsteps slowly fade before becoming entirely inaudible.

Scarlet found herself standing alone in the hall, an awful bitter taste on her tongue and a feeling of cold settling in her bones; as if when the boy had left he had taken all of the warmth in the air with him. 

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment if you can, it really helps with motivation and I wanna know what you think! :D


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